Build good habits · Lesson 15 of 16

ChatGPT Custom Instructions and Memory, Explained

Teach ChatGPT about you so you repeat yourself less: where to find Personalization, how to write custom instructions, and how memory works.

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THE WRITTEN LESSONFollow along at your pace

In this lesson, you teach ChatGPT about you, so you don’t have to repeat yourself. You will use two features that sit on the same page: custom instructions, which tell ChatGPT how to answer, and memory, which helps it remember you.

Open Personalization

Click your name at the bottom left of the screen, at the bottom of the sidebar. A menu opens. Choose Personalization.

Your name at the bottom left opens this menu.

Find memory and custom instructions

The Personalization page has two important parts. At the top is memory, under ChatGPT memory. When the Enable memory switch is on, ChatGPT can remember useful things from your chats.

The top of the Personalization page. The ChatGPT memory section is highlighted, with a green label that says Memory. Inside it, the Enable memory switch is on, and below it is Memory summary, with a Manage button. — Memory sits at the top of the page.

The Custom instructions are further down the same page. Scroll down past the other settings until you see that heading. Under it, click ChatGPT. This is where you tell ChatGPT how to answer.

Further down the Personalization page, below the rows Emoji, Layout and visuals, and Headers and lists. Under the heading Custom instructions, the ChatGPT row, which says Give ChatGPT extra instructions and context for all chats, is highlighted, with a green label that says Click ChatGPT. — Click the ChatGPT row to open your custom instructions.

Tell ChatGPT how to answer

A page called ChatGPT custom instructions opens, with a big box at the top. In this box, you write how you would like ChatGPT to answer. For example, type this:

In the custom instructions box

Use simple English and short sentences. Give answers as short lists when you can. Ask me a question if my request isn’t clear.

You can use this example as it is, or write your own rules in the same plain way.

A card titled How should ChatGPT answer? with three example instructions, one per row: “Use simple English and short sentences.”, “Give answers as short lists when you can.” and “Ask me a question if my request isn't clear.” A green label below says You write the rules. — A few plain sentences are enough.

Add a little about you, then save

You can also add a nickname, your job and a little about you. They go in the fields below the big box: Nickname, Occupation and More about you. For example, type this into More about you:

In More about you

I’m learning to use ChatGPT for everyday tasks.

Then click Save, at the top right of the page. From now on, new chats follow these instructions.

A card titled Tell ChatGPT about you, filled in with an example. Nickname: Alex. Job: Office manager. About you: “I'm learning to use ChatGPT for everyday tasks.” Below the card, two labels with green ticks say New chats follow them and Saved. — Fill in only what helps, then save. On the real page, Job is called Occupation and About you is called More about you.

Ask ChatGPT to remember or forget

Memory works on its own, without you doing anything. You can also tell ChatGPT what to remember, in plain words. Type this in a chat:

In a chat

Remember that I’m vegetarian.

And if you want it to forget something, just say so:

To make it forget

Forget that.

You can turn memory off any time, on the same Personalization page: switch off Enable memory.

A simple drawing titled Memory. On the left, two chat bubbles say “Remember that I'm vegetarian” and “Forget that”. On the right, a card titled Memory is empty, and below it a Memory switch is set to Off. — Plain words work, both to remember and to forget.

Whatever you tell ChatGPT about yourself, keep it useful, not private. Share your preferences, such as short answers and simple words. Never share your passwords or personal numbers, such as your passport number.

Three cards under the heading Keep it safe. Preferences shows the words Short answers, simple words with a green tick. Passwords shows a hidden password field crossed out in red. Personal numbers shows a passport crossed out in red. A green label below says Useful, not private. — Preferences are useful to share. Passwords and personal numbers never are.

Never share passwords or personal numbers

Keep your passwords and personal numbers out of your custom instructions (including More about you) and out of anything you ask ChatGPT to remember.

YOUR TURN

In the final lesson, you will build your own prompt toolkit: 10 ChatGPT prompts to save and reuse.

Read the full video transcript

In this lesson, you'll teach ChatGPT about you, so you don't have to repeat yourself. We'll use two features: custom instructions, and memory.

Click your name at the bottom left, and choose Personalization.

This page has two important parts. At the top is memory. When it's on, ChatGPT can remember useful things from your chats. Further down are custom instructions. Click ChatGPT there to tell it how to answer.

In custom instructions, you write how you'd like it to answer. For example: use simple English and short sentences. Give answers as short lists when you can. Ask me a question if my request isn't clear.

You can also add a nickname, your job, and a little about you. For example: I'm learning to use ChatGPT for everyday tasks. Then save. From now on, new chats follow these instructions.

Memory works on its own. You can also say: remember that I'm vegetarian. And if you want it to forget something, just say: forget that. You can turn memory off any time on the same page.

Keep it useful, not private. Share your preferences, but never your passwords or personal numbers.

So remember: custom instructions tell ChatGPT how to answer, and memory helps it remember you. Before the next lesson, write one custom instruction that would help you. Next, in the final lesson, you'll build your own prompt toolkit.